What is a Voice Reel and Why Do You Need One?

Al Black

By Al Black

21 February 2023

What is a Voice Reel and Why Do You Need One? - Voicereels

The voice industry is hyper-competitive, so having a killer reel is crucial to success. An incredible voice-over demo reel is essential in landing jobs and showing casting directors what sets you apart from other performers. But what are reels anyway?

A voice-over demo reel is a selection of short audio clips that will help you display your voice acting abilities to any potential casting directors and prospective clients. It acts as your resume to show your vocal range, skills, and personality through your voice. 

 

An Introduction to Voice Reels

Voice reels have been vital to the audition process for decades. Showing off what your voice can do helps casting directors understand what you are capable of bringing to a character or project. Different reels are normally used to demonstrate an actor’s ability across various mediums; audiobooks, video games, animation, advertisements, podcasts, radio, and more! 

Crafting a properly tailored demo reel can amplify your success in finding voice acting roles. But a voice reel needs to catch and hold the listener’s attention. The more interested they are in your reel, then the more interested they are in your voice – the more likely you get the job. 

Okay, so you get the bigger picture, but why are voice reels so important?

Matching Reels to Auditions

Putting together a singular perfect reel would be nice; however, it’s pretty unrealistic. Casting directors are likely in the midst of an intensive casting period, if they are searching for their ideal cowboy character voice they aren’t going to listen to demos made for IVR systems. They would rather just skip your reel to find a more relevant one.

This is why multiple reels are an absolute necessity. Separating your samples into character, commercial, business, and audiobook narration reels is a great way to make it easier to send relevant content to the right auditions.

Our immense script library is designed around this philosophy, so you can select the scripts you want for your reels simply and with specific tones and characteristics in mind.

Strut your Stuff

Maybe your business reel is awesome… For business projects… But listing directions or training instructions doesn’t demonstrate your incredible RANGE of emotions and tones. Anger, Authority, Sorrow – each of these feelings could be instrumental in you landing your next role.

Your Reel is all about you, so don’t hold back! Show off what you can do.

Packaging your plethora of expressions into a powerful character reel is an amazing way to show off that you can be a complex character and more than just a one-note video game NPC telling the player to catch chickens.

Pricing & Services

Many aspiring voice actors may think that self-producing a demo reel will work out cheaper than professional services. However, these same voice actors have generally not considered the total cost of voice recording equipment and must possess all the skills of an audio engineer.

Working with professional demo reel producers is about more than window dressing. Our services craft a better quality reel, fast and simple – we also use our immense knowledge of the voice-over industry to ensure you are recording what you need to include. Some samples may perform better in auditions, your voice could be perfect for a specific character, or there could be a trending style in the business – we can clue you in on these important details when you work with us.

Ultimately, an excellent reel that gets you work will pay for itself! 

Never miss out on the opportunity to level up your voice acting career. Build the perfect voice-over reel for any role. 

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